Electric Blue Rams - Parasites?

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction for medicating a couple of new Electric Blue Rams I have. Got them about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Yesterday noticed one of them was constipated. Part of the poop is clear, part brown, and in the clear part, it looked like little eggs (clear with white dot in center). HUGE poops. Not sure what kind of meds I should use. Should I go ahead and quarantine them? I have a couple peacock gudgeons, RC shrimp, and snails in there now.

I have 6 spotted blue eyes I recieved at same time that are in my QT tank now. I feared they have fin rot, and started treating them with salt and Melafix. I am starting to wonder if it is just male aggression ripping fins. I could take them out, put them back in main tank, or set up another QT for Rams.

Here are pics. Not sure if they have parasites, bacterial infection, just constipated? They are eating well, and have no other signs of illness. I feed them frozen blood worms & brine shrimp mostly. The night before I noticed they were constipated I fed them cichlid pellets and flake.

if you think they are constipated.. use 2 tablespoons epson salt *NOT TABLE SALT* per 10 gallons..

just of a day or so.. also BRINE SHRIMP.. cleans them out..

+1

One possibility about the eggs in the poop string is the brine shrimp were carrying eggs and that's what you're seeing.

Not sure how long you had them before you fed them, but it's usually best to ease them into your feeding regimen / schedule. If store-bought, they haven't eaten well in a while, if shipped from a breeder the good ones will fast the fish for 48 hours before shipping. So the fish are hungry and if no other issues, will pig out in a big way.

With most schedules it's tough to do, but avoiding huge binge and purge swings in feeding schedules helps keep internals at bay. It just means developing a feel for what will get them full vs. bloated. Huge meals sit in the gut longer and depending on the food/fish's health/water quality will have a greater chance of letting internal parasites get a foothold.

Rams are very sensitive fish, and doesn't do well with antibiotics very well.
I think your ram does have an camalanus worm and you should get levamisole. Look for any growth near the anus of the fish (the female worms hangs out and lays eggs)

For fin rot -use melafix (its really good and notice improvements by day 2)

If eggs are being passed, you want to treat the whole tank.

Rams do better at lower PH (6.3ish)

You should not be always feeding fish live food, it should be used as a treat once a week. Get a pellet food like cobalt, they have pellets that helps with the immune system. I feed my rams 1 a week, unless I am trying to sweet talk them into spawning (then I feed them for 2 days-3 days max)

in terms of fin nipping, yeah they rams do fin nip. I have a 55 gallon with about 5 Rams at its peak.. One of the rams that are still alive is a long finned balloon ram and the jumbo electric blue is beating the snot out of the long finned ram. Destroyed his fins. Not all Rams fin nip, but he is def the alpha ram of the tank and can get aggressive.

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